My deep interest in railways started in September 1962, when I was ten. Following a trip to Bournemouth along the Somerset & Dorset Railway from Staple Hill (our local station), and after seeing my first sight of a Southern Railway unrebuilt Bulleid pacific at Templecombe, I became a “train spotter',” gradually turning into a railway enthusiast from 1963 onwards.

I worked for the railway in Bristol from leaving school until 1980, after which I retrained as a Surveyor and spend the next 25 years clambering over council houses finding out what was wrong with them! After being made redundant in 2004 I became a consultant in the social housing industry.

I decided to “wind down” from full-time consultancy work at the age of 60 and found more time on my hands. I then began the series of books on cycling and walking with a strong flavour of transport history about them, just in case anybody else out there was interested in the same thing.

More details about me, the books and the BR Steam Allocations database that I compiled in 2008 can be found on my website www.robinsummerhill.co.uk